


Breakfast

by OdeToPedrazar (MyPrivateLaughter)



Series: Five Friends and Francis [3]
Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-03
Updated: 2015-01-03
Packaged: 2018-03-05 04:22:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3105566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyPrivateLaughter/pseuds/OdeToPedrazar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Nottingham</i><br/>Hero notices <i>something</i> is going on with Pedro and Balthazar...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breakfast

Friday had been spent battling jetlag and visiting the Nottingham sights led by Benedick and a slightly more factually accurate Hero.

“And this is where Robin Hood dove into the moat,” Benedick had loudly re-enacted from the castle walls. Most of the medieval castle had been destroyed and inside the walls stood a large 17th century mansion.

“He does realise that Robin Hood wasn’t an actual historical figure,” Balthazar had muttered.

But no one had really wanted to destroy his enthusiasm, not even Beatrice, though that could have been thanks to sleep deprivation.

But despite the whole day together sightseeing, it wasn’t until the next morning at breakfast that Hero noticed that something was wrong between Pedro and Balthazar

She had woken abruptly and early. She had lain there for a moment in the half-light of the hostel room, listening to the grunts and snuffles of the people sleeping around her.

Hero had been in two minds about coming on this trip. She had always loved travelling and seeing new things. This was a great chance to see the UK for the first time with some of her best friends. But then there was Claudio… He’d gone to his family’s in Australia for the summer and they’d ended things so ambiguously. It was all strange and confusing. But Hero knew that the time away was probably for the best.

Hero had reached into her bag for her phone. (Beatrice had bagsied the top bunk, obviously.) It had flashed up the time: 7.38am. She had lain back down and looked at the slats in the bunk bed above her. Beatrice was not a morning person. She had known they probably wouldn’t be leaving for hours. But Hero wasn’t the only early riser.

From a bed nearby, a slight frame had slipped out from the covers and pulled on a pair of jeans, a jumper and grabbed his coat.

“Balthazar,” Hero had hissed, causing the figure to stop in his tracks before reaching the door. “Where are you going?”

“Urm, I was going to find breakfast,” Balthazar had whispered back. “Ben won’t be up for hours.”

Hero had sat up and grabbed her rucksack. “Nor will Bea. Can I just brush my teeth? I’m starving.”

“Are you going for breakfast?” had come a groggy voice from the next bunk bed. “I want breakfast.” It had been a half-awake Pedro.

It had been when Hero had come out of the bathrooms that she had found Pedro and Balthazar both leaning against the corridor wall with a deafening silence hanging between them. Hero hadn’t been able to fully attribute it to sleepiness.

“Are you guys alright?” she had ventured.

Pedro had stood up straight and had said abruptly. “Yup, let’s go.”

Hero had looked to Balthazar questioningly but he was avoiding eye contact and had followed Pedro with his hands dug deep into his pockets.

So that’s when Hero realised that something was going on – when she was sitting between two awkwardly silent friends moodily eating bagels in a trendy Nottingham tearoom.

“So we’re going to go in the caves today, right?” Hero said to fill the silence. “Before we set off to York.”

“Yeah,” Pedro nodded and took a deep swig of his coffee.

Hero looked to Balthazar who nodded as well. “Yeah, yeah, should be cool.”

“Hmm.” Hero looked between them and tried to remember when the last time was that she’d seen them being normal with each other. What was ‘being normal’ for Pedro and Balthazar?

Hero remembered them on New Years Eve sitting on the sofa in the lounge chatting animatedly to each other, Pedro with his arm on the sofa back so that it almost looked as if he had his arm around Balthazar. Hero remembered this because she had had a warming ‘my friends are such cuties’ moment when she’d noticed them.

But had she seen them talk to each other since? Something must have happened that night. Hero’s immediate thought, perhaps unfairly, was that Pedro had said or done something to annoy Balthazar. But that wouldn’t fully explain the looks that Balthazar was occasionally casting towards Pedro, like a wounded animal looking into the eyes of the hunter.

The answer was obvious then to Hero. Balthazar, who hadn’t had a boyfriend in a while, was in love. He had declared his feelings to Pedro on New Years Eve and been rejected. Hence the awkwardness.

Hero wasn’t sure that there was anything she could do to help but she took a leisurely trip to the toilets and to buy another tea in the hopes that they may have some time to talk alone. And sure enough, she could see from the till Pedro leaning across the table and saying something in a hushed tone to Balthazar, who wasn’t looking up from his coffee. Hero didn’t want to interrupt them but there was only so long she could hang around the counter and the barristers were already giving her funny looks.

“I’m sorry. I made everything weird,” Pedro was saying before he noticed Hero’s approach and shut up sharpish.

Hero sat down with a sympathetic smile for Balthazar. “Do you think the others will be up yet?”

“Not a chance,” Pedro said. “You want another drink, Balth?”

Balthazar looked up and said, “Um, yeah, coffee.”

And Pedro had stood up, visibly pleased at having received any response at all. Perhaps it wasn’t complete reconciliation but Hero suspected that a start had been made. Reconciliations were her forte after all, Hero thought, with only a hint of resentment.

**Author's Note:**

> :) :) Hero gets the wrong end of the stick but we still love her for trying *heart* Off to York next and a little more Pedrazar angst ;) Hope you're enjoying this!!


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